Last year was the second warmest at the Prague-Klementinum meteorological station since 1775, when it first launched regular measurements.
In 2018, the average temperature was recorded at 12.6 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.2 degrees below the record year 2018, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMU) announced.
Compared to the standard from 1981 to 2010, last year was warmer by 1.8 degrees.
“With this deviation, 2019 was exceptionally abnormal in temperature,” says meteorologist Pavel Jůza.
“The temperature deviation from the old standard from 1961 to 1990 was plus 2.6 degrees Celsius, and according to that standard, of course, last year would also be extremely warm. The temperature deviation from the long-term average of 1775 to 2014 was plus-three degrees Celsius,” says the meteorologist.
The years 2014 and 2015, with an average temperature of 12.5 degrees, remain third and fourth in Klementinum’s ranking of the warmest years in Prague. The year 2007, with the average temperature of 12.1 degrees Celsius, ranks fifth.
“There is only one year before 2000 in the first ten places of the ranking. It is 1994, which placed ninth,” Jůza points out.
Last December was also very warm when the average temperature in Prague was 4.8 degrees Celsius. It was 2.8 degrees warmer than the average from 1981 to 2010, ranking 14th to 15th out of 245 previous last months of the year.
Regular meteorological measurements at the Klementinum observatory began in 1752. However, records of air temperature and pressure are largely incomplete until 1774. Therefore, the year 1775 is considered to be the beginning of the Klementinum series.
